Hey, I posted a while back, and things are different now. The doctor confirmed it was cholinergic urticaria and gave me some antihistamines, and currently I have an appointment for UVB sunlight treatment for August. As usual the antihistamines didn’t work, neither did the pills that make hives a bit less severe but make you drowsy.
I’ve researched like crazy and finally got the appointment to a dietitian a few days ago, for those who can’t afford it here’s the basics I learned.
Focus solely on the food, especially chewing. I’ve been used to sitting behind tv/computer all my life while eating to keep myself “entertained”, but what I don’t notice is that more often big pieces get swallowed and my stomach doesn’t like that. Also take time to eat, if you eat something in a rush the things mentioned above happen, such as swallowing bigger pieces, more air: causing more trouble in the stomach with gases and burping, thus giving more chances of hives.
Guideline for eating: Always keep 3-4h between each meal, I keep 3h because of how short my day is. To keep your belly full that long, eat well but don’t over-eat, if you’re full you’re full. It took me a few times before I understood my dosages and now maintain a full belly for 3h, so it’s okay to mess up a few times in the start.
Breakfast (12:00pm-1:00pm), depending when I wake up)
Oatmeal with blueberries, and coconut milk.
Mid-day (3:00pm-4:00pm)
Freshly cooked rice and chicken with cucumber, broccoli and/or carrots, and coconut milk
Dinner (6:00pm-7:00pm)
Freshly cooked rice and chicken with cucumber, broccoli and/or carrots, and coconut milk
Snacks (Whenever and after dinner if hungry)
Watermelon, oatmeal with blueberries, blueberries, corn flakes (gluten free) with coconut milk.
You can shift things around, but the main point is to eat protein at least 2 times a day, for me rice and chicken, around daytime and later in dinner. Between those 2 protein times (daytime and dinner) should be for snacks, but my day is shorter in the summertime so I just eat those in a row after 3h.
As always, this isn’t a 100% hives cure, but a general guideline which I’m testing myself and the results are coming in some weeks. If you want, you can do exactly as I am and only eat the foods mentioned above and see if it works for you. Always talk to a doctor first to make sure the diet is safe for you.
Feel free to ask about my hives or diet below.
-Clyde
Anonymous says
So how are you feeling now after you diet? Are you almost 100%?
Clyde says
Only just started so a few more weeks until I can notice any difference. Also good for me to actually avoid broccoli and carrots because they release a lot of gas, causing uncomfortable stomach.
Far from 100%, but summer break keeps the breakouts to a minimum.
Catherine says
I have contacted a dietcian and hope to meet with her next week. My allergist has me on mega meds with zero relief. She mentioned hives could be caused by stress….which I’ve had a lot of. Sadly I lost my husband to cancer and prior to this my mother,nephew and twin sister. I thought I had dealt with the grief but maybe not. I’m also a 5 year kidney cancer survivor. I am cancer free!
I am not one to take any kind of drugs. I mentioned diet to my allergist and she didn’t promote the idea. She mentioned trying XOLIAR which scares me to death. She did give me a handout saying 90% of the time they have no idea what’s causing it.
Also she did an allergy test…I’m allergic to nothing.
Clyde says
That is a sad thing to hear, since emotions and thoughts play a big part in this disorder. Suppressed emotions have sneaked up to me as well in the past and caused stronger hives without me even knowing it.
Before starting off, I’ve put heavy research into finding a solution to my hives. I’ve visited probably every single page that mentions urticaria and read through many of the solutions/cures/problems posted here in order to get myself well again.
I’m no doctor and as always the recommendation to talk to a doctor persists, although I see no meaningful purpose of that since most people and me get negative/neutral responses and all suggestions to them with food, cures etc usually stay ignored. I don’t take any drugs I’ve been prescribed, since they usually never help and cause more harm than good. Strong drugs make you drowsy and no hives for a while, but messes up your body and the problem will always come back.
I’ve taken the natural approach, I got sick of eating just chicken and rice so I found a site that mentions all low- and rarely medium vegetables (from which some are antihistamines) and added those in, to get all the vitamins and heal my stomach, kidneys etc naturally instead of taking vitamin pills which I don’t like and have acids in them: Ginger, garlic, cabbage, leek. Stopped oatmeal since it caused stronger hives.
Started drinking stinging nettle tea (since it is a natural antihistamine and cures a lot of things), as an infusion:
Buy a pack of dried stinging nettle leaves, put 3 tablespoons of dried leaves per 1L boiling water and let it steep for at least 4h under a tight cap/lid. Remove the leaves after that and can be drunk right away or refrigerate it and over a couple of days. 300-600ml per day is good for me.
I now take walks every day and turned my biggest weakness to my strength: I want to break hives, I want to sweat. When you sweat, the histamine releases: keep the sweat pores open long enough and hives won’t occur for the day or even a couple of days. Just around a week of doing that and each day the hives are less aggressive and I start to sweat faster. The sunlight is a big factor in this for it’s vitamin D and also people have mentioned that they stayed out in the sun for long periods of time during the summer and their hives went away for life.
Currently I have ordered stinging nettle extract pills that have helped 2 people I read about and want to see if it has an effect on me as well. B12 cream, portable sauna for sweat therapy are just a few of the things I plan to order in case the previous things don’t work out.
Diet (mentioned above), removing all and any stress, walking every day, sweat therapy, nettle tea infusion, showering as little as possible, breathing right and stretching, odorless/natural shampoos, as loose clothing as possible are most the things that have helped me this summer and made the hives a lot less painful and shorter day by day.
I have a lot more to say but I’d rather answer any questions you or anyone else might have, since I remember how hopeless I was the day I found this site and had no clue where to start.
Catherine says
Is there a website you went to for your diet. I’ve contacted a dietician but no response so far. I will check into the stinging nettle extract pills and B12.
I try to walk most days and always get hives. It normally takes 2-3 hours for them to go a way. I listen to meditation tapes 2x a day and have started writing in a journal daily. I have seen a grief therapist and doesn’t see me as being “stressed out”.
When I went to the allergist, she tested me for allergies and I wasn’t allergic to anything. I mentioned to her diet but she wasn’t real su[[
Clyde says
My dietitian gave me loads of things from morning till evening, the guideline is a lot shorter here since I removed cucumber, carrots, oats etc after they caused trouble to my stomach or made hives worse. So for me, bare bones is the best to eliminate all and any triggers with simply chicken and vegetables and gluten-free cornflakes with coconut milk.
Rice and chicken with Fennel/celery/kale/carrots/swiss chard/cabbage/leek/beetroot/ginger and gluten-free cornflakes with coconut milk is all I eat and my health has improved. One tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with a little amount of water before eating has also made digestion easier for me.
Dietitian focused more on just healing the gut, since she didn’t know a lot about histamine. But for me there were too many risks to take with grain breads, pastas, fruits so I just left that out. Also potatoes are risky which are nightshades, one person mentioned that after removing all nightshade foods from her diet she healed completely from her urticaria. Very low-carb diet has also healed a person and I might try that in the future, since carbs cause inflammation, just worth trying.
I still recommend going with as basic foods as possible e.g rice and chicken with vegetables and gluten-free cornflakes since everything else is purely a risk to try and you might never find out which of these fruits/snacks make hives worse.
Breakfast: 2-3 buckwheat/oat bread with slices of chicken or turkey, cucumber, melons
Lunch: Chicken/turkey with rice/potato/gluten-free pasta and vegetables
Snacks: Oatmeal with blueberries, cornflakes with coconut milk, smoothie with fruits+rice protein.
Dinner: Same as lunch
I went to the allergist as well and it is usually of no help and has nothing to do with urticaria. Before walking every day I used to sit behind the computer all day and the hives back then were a lot worse since I had zero activities.
As I mentioned sweat therapy is pretty much the last straw for anyone including me, that means full-intensity stationary bicycle, sauna, running anything that opens your sweat pores and gets the histamine out. The first times are gonna suck, but after a while it gets easier if you maintain a proper diet and don’t give up. Before you know it, the hives are less severe and less itchy, and each time you start to sweat faster.
I recommend typing “low oxalate low histamine diet” to google and pick the first link for a full list. Ofcourse if anything from the foods causes trouble in the stomach just leave that out, for me they were carrots, broccoli, oatmeal etc.
Vas says
Hi
Thank you – what a useful website this is, chanced upon it when I googled ‘skin heats up before itching’!!
I’m a vegetarian, so wonder what I should change in my diet….I tend to have oatmeal with a pear, cooked with semi skimmed milk…I add cinnamon powder and chopped dates to it too.
My condition gets aggravated with heat…so summers are tricky. Until last year I would take an anti-histamine if the itching troubled me too much at night…and that used to be effective. Alas this summer, the pill doesn’t appear to have much of an effect. I also try applying Doublebase cream or a tried and tested body butter. I have eczema too, so its a double whammy – the joy!!
Thank you once again…
Clyde says
For vegetarians I have no clue. The heat can be overwhelming, but once you sweat it’ll be easier, and vitamin D from the sun helps the skin. Most of the things that help I’ve written above.
Also forgot to mention earlier, it’s useful to get a humidifier, keeps the skin and room humid.